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Comment · 4 years ago
During its ascendency as a global capital, Montreal was a decidedly multicultural and multicultural metropolis. One that native Montrealers (read: those with deep roots here) try to cultivate.

But today's Montreal is the result of heavy-handed, paternalistic social engineering driven by an external government over the past 40 years... And is a shell of its former self. One that is going to be further hollowed unless these laws are reversed.

Comment · 4 years ago
Comment · 4 years ago
Comment · 4 years ago
Last I checked, Montreal is in Canada and Canada has two official languages. It's my right
Comment · 4 years ago
In no case am I grafting Americanism onto Canadian politics. I'm using an analogy to illustrate to non-Canadians how outsiders (nationalist extremists from the ROQ) are able to impose their values and views on the multicultural, multilingual city of Montreal and it has systematically strangled the city since 1976.

Or do you have another explanation for the population , capital, and cultural flight that occurred over the 80s 90s that we have never recovered from?

Comment · 4 years ago
To be clear I'm upset about these policies because they stamped out the ideals of Montreal and have strangled the city, turning it from a truly global capital to a provincial backwater that's now more renowned as a great place for Americans to get in some underage drinking.

My National ideals, and those of the majority from Montreal, are multilingualism and multiculturalism. Runs against the ideals of the ROQ (Rest Of Quebec) and it's disheartening to see my city suffocate under rules written up by people and for people who are not actually from the city

Comment · 4 years ago
Because:

[3] exclusively targets non-Christian symbols and came after a campaign of primarily non-city folk freaking out because immigrants are different - most infamously Herouxville where the town published a manifesto warning immigrants against "stoning and burning women. It included, too, an explanation of the importance of Christmas trees." [1]. The Catholic symbology remains in the officialdom - see the giant cross that sits atop Montreal, and the crosses that were never removed from the public schools, or many provincial offices. Not to mention it's OK to wear a crucifix.

[4] goes way beyond education. Montreal is a functionally bilingual city and those of us from here speak "franglais", a mix of the two and have no issue switching. This new law massively restricts access to: education, medicare, legal services, to name a few in the official language of your choice. It even gives powers to the language police to, for example, raid a law or medical office, get access to confidential documents to ensure you are only being served in French [2]. I live in a nation with 2 official languages in a city where the majority of people are bilingual and happy to serve in either language- and Quebec just effectively made one of those languages illegal. How is this is not discrimination?

Georgia-Atlanta is an analogy. The rural areas are 99% white, unilingual francophone - a group who genuinely believe bilingualism and multiculturalism is a problem - Montreal's two key, unique strengths and defining characteristics. If we had representation by population, these would be non-issues but because the rural areas are heavily weighted, the ruling CAQ has a supermajority after winning only 37% of the vote.[3]

[1] https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/herouxville-quebec-r...

[2] https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/bill-96-explained-1....

[3] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Quebec_general_election

Comment · 4 years ago
Everything but the former Crown corporations like Air Canada and Bell moved their HQs. And the ones that stayed only did so because the federal government made sure they stayed
Comment · 4 years ago
It's not about power with Canada, it's about power within the borders to ensure the "pure wool" is not just preserved but any contaminating factors eliminated
Comment · 4 years ago
The only reason I see this relevant to HN is because lots of tech companies have been opening Montreal offices over the past 20 years. We have 4 universities and most educated people are bilingual in spite of the officialdom.

However the drumbeats of separatism are banging again [1], so might be relevant considering what happened to the Montreal economy the last times these idiots were allowed to lead by their inferiority complex.

Background: Native Montrealer, proud Canadian-Italian whose ancestors built the city, and have watched it decay over the past 40 years due to paternalistic and policies and a system of government that prioritizes the opinions of the "Les régions" over Montreal (it's like if voters in the Georgia countryside fully dictated how Atlanta operates)

What Quebec nationalism has resulted in:

-Literal language police (see: pastagate [2] - this stupidity had been doubled down on)

-Codification of racism and suppression that also increases the burden on businesses (see: Bill 21 and Bill 96) [3,4]

-Blatant disregard for the Charter of Rights and Freedoms (the "notwithstanding clause") [5]

-Montreal was the most diverse, vibrant city in Canada, truly a global capital - this movement handed that directly to Toronto

-Montreal was the financial and tech capital of Canada - this movement handed that directly to Toronto

[1] https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/mobile/video?clipId=1831353

[2] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pastagate

[3] https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/what-bill-21-means-f...

[4] https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/language-law-bill-96-adopted-pro...

[5] https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/mobile/what-is-the-notwithstandi...

Comment · 4 years ago
Comment · 4 years ago
The latest Doomberg does a great job in pointing out the practical flaws.

https://doomberg.substack.com/p/20000-volts-under-the-sea

"The Xlinks project is a pretty good concept, and yet…it needs access to materials already claimed by many others at prices increasing by the day, it needs to build an entire HVDC industry in Britain from the ground up, and it needs money, lots of it."

Comment · 4 years ago
I worked with a hole digger in HI. The deepest he got in his yard was about 10 feet. Says his record was 20 when he was a teen at his parents' house in LA.

Really cool dude

Comment · 4 years ago
Can't argue against that. Although to be fair, the MBAification of the leadership class is turning most places into Ponzis or client-hating Monopolies
Comment · 4 years ago
Industries that actually run the world and won't be disrupted by whatever VC-funded "Uber of X" whose business model is ultimately a Ponzi scheme. Think banking, engineering firms like Schneider/ABB, tools that are actually used in hospitals, etc. Look for major industry players that provide the backbone of basic infrastructure that you probably never heard of because they're too busy growing at a clip of 2% per year at $2B profit and don't need to crow. And of course the companies that support them

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